When freedom of speech and freedom of the press die, it will happen by a thousand small cuts.
Last Friday night, in the 1,900-person town of Marion, Kansas, all five of the town’s police officers were summoned to work because of an urgent need. They were ordered by their chief to execute a search warrant immediately, which they did.
And what was this all about? A restaurant review. And how scurrilous was the review? It was never published. But we do know that DWI records in Kansas are public and anyone can look them up. And we do know that all government officials involved in this escapade took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution and all laws written pursuant to it; and none of them did so.The First Amendment reads in part, “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.
In order to underscore the unique role played by the press in our once-free society, Congress enacted the Privacy Protection Act of 1980. It recognizes that the First Amendment expressly and uniquely views the press in America as the eyes and ears of the public. When the Nixon administration sought and obtained an injunction against the publication of the papers, the Supreme Court intervened and held that matters material to the public interest are fair game for publication, no matter how they were acquired.
If the government — local, state or federal — wants information from a journalist or publisher, it must obtain a subpoena from a grand jury and serve it civilly on the custodian of the records that the government seeks.
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